Erzebet, or Elizabeth, Bathory was born August 7th, 1560 (HAPPY BIRTHDAY). While there’s no proof that she actually bathed in the blood of virgins, as those rumors weren’t circulated until after her death, she definitely murdered a whole crapton of young women. There are disagreements as to how many, however; though the official body count seems to be 80, one serving girl claimed that Bathory murdered up to 650. The Countess managed to escape trial due to the shame it would bring to her very influential family, but she was nevertheless imprisoned and sealed up in a castle in Hungary. (I took most of this from Wikipedia.)

Elizabeth Bathory is also one of the patron saints of heavy metal, as her story is beset with imagery of bathing in blood, eternal youth, vampirism, possible links to the Devil, you know, pretty much everything you could want in a gothic sensational tale. So here’s a playlist I threw together of a bunch of songs relating to Countess Bathory, either directly or through blood-bathing references, name-dropping, or other indirect means.

Tormentor – Elizabeth Bathory

[Let’s start this off with a band from the Countess’ native Hungary, shall we?]

Sunn O))) – Bathory Erzebet

Ghost – Elizabeth

Electric Wizard – Torquemada 71

[This one is more about Torquemada, of course, but the Countess does get name-dropped.]Venom – Countess Bathory

Evile – Bathe in Blood

[Some more general blood-bathing and murder.]

Candlemass – The Bleeding Baroness

X-Japan – Rose of Pain

[I swear one of these days I’m going to do a post entirely about X-Japan and how amazing they are. I had forgotten all about this song, and it’s great, just like everything else this band ever did.]

Bathory – Woman of Dark Desires

[No playlist for Elizabeth Bathory is complete without Bathory, of course.]

Cradle of Filth – Cruelty and the Beast

[…And then there was that time when Cradle of Filth made an entire album about her.]

***

I’ll be back soon with a review of Ghost and Macabre, and a big ol’ post about how much I love Shining, since they’ve been around for 20 years now and I get to see them in a couple of weeks.

So I am on a cleaning mission. I’m tearing apart my apartment, because I only three bookshelves and they are all overflowing, and I have a closet and chest of drawers chock full of stuff I don’t wear and don’t need and don’t want, so I need to get rid of some of this crap. And my landlord is gonna be disappointed in me because the city people are supposed to come by and inspect tomorrow and it looks like a minor scale hurricane came through here but I don’t even care because when I’m done it will be awesome.

The important point to all this is that I have found things I didn’t realize I still had. Like burned CD copies of all the old Mayhem bootlegs.

So I’ve been planning on doing a thing on black metal cover songs for a long time but never got around to it, and by this point I’m sure there are some on my original mental list that have slipped my mind. But here is at least part one (there’s no Bathory on here, for starters. Mainly because I’d have done Emperor’s cover of A Fine Day To Die but I wanted to do the Mercyful Fate cover).

My personal favorite covers tend to be those in which a band puts their own spin on the original, incorporating new sounds into an old song, so that’s what I’ve tried to stick with here. And so without further ado, some personal favorite black metal covers of mine in random order!

Emperor – Gypsy (Mercyful Fate cover)

I remember reading in The Slayer Mag Diaries that Metalion didn’t like this cover, I think because of what Emperor did with the keyboards. But the added keyboards give the song that symphonic and majestic feel that is distinctly Emperor, laid over the straightforward, traditional metal of Mercyful Fate, and personally, I think that’s what makes it fantastic. Well, that and Ihsahn singing falsetto.

Watain – Watain (VON cover)

HERE IS. WHERE HE KILLS. Watain’s cover of the song from which they took their name is great fun, not least of all because Von sounds absolutely nothing like Watain has ever sounded a day in their lives. It’s always a good time to hear a band play something completely out of their ordinary style, and I’m less likely to get all whimsical and teary-eyed like I do when Watain covers Dissection.

Shining – I Nattens Timma (Landberk cover)

By all means, if you do not know Landberk’s original of I nattens timma, you ought to get out there and listen to it. It is, I think, actually creepier than Shining’s cover, with a more music-box feel to it and creepy flutes. However much I really like the original, though, I absolutely adore Shining’s version, which is how I fell in love with Niklas Kvarforth’s clean singing voice.

Dissection – Elisabeth Bathory (Tormentor cover)

There is literally nothing about Dissection covering Tormentor that isn’t cool. Of course, Jon Nödtveidt will never sound like Attila in the opening voice over, and Dissection’s approach to the song is, unsurprisingly, not as atmospheric or low-fi as the original. But rest assured, they’ve certainly Swedish-ized it, and only in the best possible way.

Thorns – Cosmic Keys to My Creations and Times (Emperor cover)

Thorns’ cover of Emperor’s Cosmic Keys is totally weird, and completely wonderful. It’s all the Emperor riffs you love, but slowed down to doom speeds and with a spoken-word voice over rather than the shrieks of the original. Slow-building and immensely heavy with a steady, almost tribal-sounding drum beat in the background, Thorns’ creepy, apocalyptic-feeling approach to the track is proof of how lucky we are that Samoth and Snorre were kicking around in the same prison for a bit.

Agalloch – Kneel to the Cross (Sol Invictus cover)

I remember seeing Agalloch play this live and being shell-shocked, because at the time I hadn’t heard the original, but I had studied medieval lyric poetry, and all I could think of was this. Anyway. That’s weird. Both versions are fantastic, of course, but it’s interesting how Agalloch’s blackened version seeps the hopefulness out of the original.

Melechesh – Babylon Fell (Celtic Frost cover)

Melechesh’s cover of Babylon Fell adds a Mediterranean flair to Celtic Frost’s blistering original. The drums in particular are really cool on this track, with the syncopated drumbeat shifting slightly away from the original. Likewise, they use several different vocal techniques, making for some interesting layering (I am, unsurprisingly partial to the shrieks). And of course, there’s some sitar in there as well, lending this cover an Eastern feel that complements the title and lyrics.

Dimmu Borgir – Burn in Hell (Twisted Sister cover)

Okay, so this is once again me posting Dimmu post-them being acceptable to a lot of black metal people, but once again, I don’t care. They covered Twisted Sister, and Burn in Hell at that, and it’s fun as shit, and ICS Vortex is as on par here as he ever is.

Limbonic Art – De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (Mayhem cover)

Limbonic Art’s symphonic take on De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is super cool- the vocals are inspired by Attila’s while still having an original flair to them, and the added keyboards give the song an eerie, almost gothic effect, complementing the original beautifully while still maintaining its own sound.

Celtic Frost – In the Chapel, In the Moonlight (Dean Martin cover)

I didn’t realize that this song was a cover until just recently. Now that I realize that it’s not only a cover, but a Dean Martin song, I find that not only awesome but also hilarious. This can also go into the list of Totally Metal Songs to Play at Your Wedding, which is now also going to be a list because I just thought of it. Celtic Frost also definitely put their own spin on this one, considering that it, uh, does not sound like Dean Martin.

So there you go! That’s a start of a list, at least, and probably needs more added to it, so don’t be surprised if there’s a part two lurking in the future. I’m working up a review of the Metal Threat Fest Warm-Up Show with Destroyer 666 (!) as well as some other things, but the posts might be more sporadic over the next couple of weeks while I finish up the summer session of school.

Heeeeyyy everyone. It’s my birthday again! And that means you all get a post of what I’m listening to at the moment, about which you may or may not care at all! (I realized that I missed out doing this the past couple of years. I may need to do a couple of other random gratuitous N/P posts to make up for it.)

Anyhow, without further ado, here is what I’ve been jamming lately.

Shining

SHINING IS COMING TO NORTH AMERICA YOU GUYS. I have been stupidly excited ever since this was announced, so it’s probably no surprise that Shining has been on near-constant rotation for me lately. (Niklas Kvarforth is also apparently not a June-baby. Ah well. Can’t have ’em all, I suppose.)

Taake

All of these articles lately with the back and forth about SJWs in metal using Taake as an example has done literally nothing but make me want to listen to more Taake. So that is what I does. Also I just got my own copy of this album after loving it for years. (Also, a bonus. I picked Myr for the list because it has a sample from Rosemary’s Baby. Whose birthday is ALSO June 28th.

Venom

Another thing I recently acquired was Venom’s Black Metal on vinyl. Unsurprisingly, it’s been in the rotation too.

Dissection

Dissection gets a spot on the birfday playlist because they are Satan’s favorite band. Also, today is Jon Nötdveidt’s birthday too, RIC.

1349

It’s also Frost’s birthday, and while something from Nemesis Divina probably makes more sense (since it’s that album’s 20th anniversary), I just got the massive and awesome 1349 Candlelight Years box set- 4 albums and the official unofficial bootleg DVD. So cheers to Frost, who was also born on the best day ever.

Psychonaut 4

I have always been vaguely aware of Psychonaut4, but until my buddy actively pushed them on me a couple of months ago I’d never really listened to them. I love my DSBM, especially in the summertime (summer is the worst!), and Psychonaut4 is some of the best.

Abbath

Because the new album is still fantastic, even 6 months after its release. And because yesterday was Abbath’s birthday (I swear, all the kvltest kids are born in June.)

Dark Funeral

Also, Dark Funeral makes the list this year, because their new album is awesome.

Black Metal Surf Rock

I’ve also been listening to surf rock covers of black metal tunes because it’s summer, and I made myself a mix cd of some of the greatest hits from YouTube the other day.

Ravencult

I also picked up Ravencult’s Morbid Blood the other day, an album that’s been on my list for a long time but I never got around to getting. If you don’t know Ravencult, but you like good, thrash-tinged black metal, you should give them a listen.

So there you have it, kids. Hopefully I’ve managed to channel some frostbitten grimness into your summer.

So while I have two huge assignments and one little one due this week and am spending time listening to music so that I can review things, I’m going to take this time to plug something I’m excited about.

Unreqvited is an atmospheric/DSBM/post-black metal band from Canada (a country that seems to do this sort of thing well. Gris, anyone?). I was first made aware of Unreqvited while doing this thing that I do every once in a while where I just go through and listen to the front page of whatever is posted in the DSBM subreddit, and the first released track, “Disquiet” (which is also the title track of the upcoming album) was one of the things posted. It says something, I think, when you are listening to a whole bunch of really fine DSBM all at once and then you hear something that gets you as pumped as this track did for me. I immediately went and posted it on Facebook and yelled about it a little bit because I get excited about these things.

From what I can tell from Bandcamp and Facebook, which isn’t a whole lot, Unreqvited appears to be a one-man project. So far there are only two tracks released, the aforementioned one and another called “Maydena” (which was shared on YouTube by Lightfox177, who is very on top of things and whose opinions are way more respected than mine, so you should pay attention). There’s a really lovely blend of distortion and clean-sounding keyboards here, and I am seriously digging the screams. The two tracks currently available are fantastic, and I cannot wait to hear the rest of this thing come October 1.

Like, seriously, I’ve not been this excited for a debut in a long time.

In the meantime, if you want to follow Unreqvited like I am doing, you can find the band on Facebook or Bandcamp (and also on occasion in various black metal related subreddits). Disquiet is set for release through Pest Productions on October 1.

DUDES. I’m sorry this is late. I got bogged down in work and homework and then I went to see Jaws in a theater and I forgot to post. Anyway, here’s this spacefiller post that I’m totally not happy with. Hopefully someone gets something out of it.

***

The other day, I read back over the post that I did on black metal music videos a few years ago, and decided it was probably time for another. This coincided with the release of the new Dark Funeral video for “Unchain My Soul,” which is astoundingly goofy and worthy of sharing (although the song is very decent, says the girl who doesn’t like Dark Funeral all that much). There’s not much of a point to this post beyond “look at this cool stuff that has happened” and some observations about the changing nature of black metal cinematography, but it’s always good to have more music video fodder, yes?

So let’s just start Dark Funeral, shall we? Dark Funeral has a new album coming out this year, and I actually like “Unchain My Soul,” despite my typical stance that they haven’t done anything good since the 90s (it’s horribly overproduced, in my opinion, but it’s catchy). The video, however, J described as looking “like a video game from 2004.” I’m not sure what the message is here, unless it is that dark hooded figures associated with black metal and Satan like to walk in the woods, which is kind of a given. Although the pig’s head is a nice touch in a throwback-to-the-early-nineties-Mayhem sort of way. (Aaand I’ll be reviewing this album soon over at Burning Fist, so yay!)

My personal favorite part of this video is the flaming pentagram and inverted crosses. It’s got a certain “Satan’s first Geocities website” flair to it.

Fortunately for all of us, it seems that we may get more silly black metal videos as Dark Funeral’s competition over in Norway, Dimmu Borgir, have promised us a new album for 2016. You know you’re excited for more stuff like this. I share this one because it’s obviously the best Dimmu lineup.

I also share it because I don’t know what’s going on here. At all. But it’s going on in glorious, high definition.

Rotting Christ has also been busy with the video-releasing in support of their (awesome, excellent, you need to check it out if you haven’t) new album Rituals. First of all, there’s this little gem that I yelled a bit about last week, which is a hymn to Shiva, and then No Clean Singing brought this to my attention a couple of days ago, making me glad I held off on this post. Watching this video brings out even more really cool aspects of the record, and now I’m looking forward more than I was before to doing a review of this for y’all.

Additionally, Abbath’s new video for Winterbane is also really cool. You get traditional Immortal synchronized headbanging, but that’s… about it really. There’s no crabwalk, and this video actual features a shaman-ish troll-ish forest creature thing… I have no way to accurately describe it. But it crawls into the water all Jenny Greenteeth-like, but since I’m pretty sure the imagery isn’t Celtic that doesn’t fit. Either way, it’s super cool, and where the stars go all sparkly at 3:07 makes me super happy. King ov Hell’s bass lines also get emphasis in the video, which is cool (hooray for bass in black metal!) and Abbath’s look at the end is fantastic.

Bonus- there’s an un-corpse-painted Abbath face in this video.

At the risk of inundating you with lyric videos, because that is the hip thing to do if you are black metal band putting out music in 2016, I will leave you here with an older video. I like to imagine that Aosoth made this video at the behest of a long-suffering agent, and chose the longest song on the album out of which to make a terrifying visual. It’s gloriously creepy and obnoxious because of it’s sheer length, and you get to listen to Aosoth while it plays (you luckies).

Enjoy, kids. And I’ll be back soon where I will assuredly scream about fun things like the fact that I get to see SHINING and PANOPTICON in the fall and DESTROYER 666 and GHOST next month and that MARDUK ❤ is coming back to play in ma ville. Also the brand spanking new book that Necrobutcher wrote that appeared on my doorstep yesterday, and all sorts of fun things.

I don’t have anything for this week yet (sorry). School started back and I have a new work schedule, and I’ve all but written up a second post on black metal music videos but I hate it right now, so until it looks like something I want to share with people I’m not gonna.

In the meantime, Rotting Christ just released a new lyric video a couple of days ago. It’s a hymn to Shiva, the Hindu Destroyer God, and it’s in Sanskrit, which is kind of super awesome. It has Kathir from Rudra on vocals. A helpful dude in the comments also supplied an unofficial translation.

I plan on reviewing Rotting Christ’s new album Rituals soon, because it’s amazing. If you haven’t heard it yet you should get thee hence and do so, and in the meantime, trance out to this one in particular because it’s great.